Can
You
Digg
It?

Can You Digg It? ...

Betaworks launched the new Digg, Digg V1, on the 1st August 2012. The company recently purchased the identity of the social news site for $500,000 and then went on to completely rebrand their new property.

The old Digg was text heavy and had less emphasis on images whereas its new update is heavily influenced by pictures. Since the rise of Pinterest and Google+ image based content has become very popular online and has even forced Facebook into updating their photo gallery design (http://mashable.com/2012/07/30/facebook-upgrades-photo-viewing-sharing/). Not only is the picture based format popular but it also helps distance Digg from their main rival, Reddit. "The Front Page of the Internet" is a site that still sticks to its original list focussed design.

In my opinion the new Digg is aesthetically brilliant, and features content that caters to a range of readers. However it seems to be straying from the concept that once made it one of the most popular sites on the internet. Digg was originally created to be heavily user based. Members of the community would decide what they wanted on the front page by "Digging" their favourite links and could leave remarks and start conversations in the comment section. The new Digg though has decided to maintain the site themselves by using three editors to highlight the best of the web; they have also completely removed the comment section. With discussion being key to most social interaction sites it should be interesting to see how new users take to this reimagining. It is important to mention though that the new site was pushed out as soon as possible, meaning some updates may still be coming through. The comment section may no longer exist but Twitter and Facebook have been integrated into the new site allowing users to share content with people in their own social media circles.

Even with the excitement and press coverage surrounding the new launch, Digg still isn’t being searched for on Google as much as Reddit. The new Digg is enjoyable and is definitely a site I will be returning to over the next few days but the real problem will come when in a few weeks when the novelty of a new look has worn off.

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